The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hydrangea macrophylla and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, ‘HORTMACLEPA’. ‘HORTMACLEPA’ represents a new mophead type Hydrangea, a deciduous shrub grown for use as a landscape plant and as a cut flower.
The new cultivar was derived from an ongoing controlled breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Boskoop, The Netherlands. The goal of the breeding program is to develop new cultivars of Hydrangea with good cut flower qualities with unique flower colors. The objective with this new cultivar was to obtain a plant with sterile floret sepals that were white with a pink edge with good substance. ‘HORTMACLEPA’ was derived from a cross made in May of 2009 between proprietary plants from the Inventor's breeding program reference no. 07-036-01 (not patented) as the female parent and reference no. 07-120-06 (not patented) as the male parent. ‘HORTMACLEPA’ was selected in June of 2012 as a single unique plant from amongst the resulting seedlings.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by stem cuttings in Boskoop, The Netherlands by the Inventor in August of 2011. Asexual propagation by softwood cuttings has determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.